1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for searching data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and a computer usable program product for an event-based database for analyzing security information to discover past, present, or future potentially criminal activities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Combating terrorism and crime effectively often depends on accurate information. For example, if the location or exact identity of a terrorist or criminal is not known, then apprehending the terrorist or criminal is difficult, if not impossible. Thus, methods and devices for better acquiring and processing information are always desired in the areas of law enforcement and the military.
Finding anomalous criminal or terrorist activities in a sea of information is extraordinarily difficult under the best of circumstances. Pertinent information is often buried in vast quantities of divergent data. Divergent data is sets of data having different types, sizes, compatibilities, and other differences. The data is often of widely different types scattered across various physical systems belonging to different organizations or individuals. Many of the data types, such as picture files, video files, and audio files, are not normally susceptible to normal query techniques. Relevant information is often spread through different points in time. The data is stored often at different levels of granularity; that is, some data has a great deal of associated information while other data has only a little associated information.
Additionally, the data often reflect parts of larger patterns. A first set of data, by itself, is of little value, but together with other data combinations of the first set of data and other data would show a pattern of criminal or terrorist activity. Similarly, patterns or events are often discernable only by piecing together data from multiple individuals or cohorts spread throughout the data. Cohorts are groups of objects or people that share common characteristics or are otherwise part of a group.
To make matters more difficult, not all data is accessible to the individuals to whom the data would matter most. For example, a city detective might not have access to databases of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Central Intelligence Agency. Thus, the city detective might not have access to information critical to solving a crime or disrupting a terrorist plot. Similarly, lack of a longitudinal view of criminal or security related events hampers the ability of law enforcement personnel, military personnel, or intelligence analysts from making important inferences that would solve crimes or prevent nefarious activities. Furthermore, much of the available data is subjective or ambiguous.
Databases, data processing systems, and information processing systems have been proposed to attempt to address this problem. However, all known information processing systems suffer from critical flaws, such as in the lack of an ability to deal with data at different levels of granularity, or the lack of the ability to compare divergent data and assign multiple levels of granularity and probability to inferences that can be made from the divergent data.